Concern over Facebook Bullying in United Kingdom Schools

Numerous York schools in the UK have been affected by a cyber bullying scandal. Head teachers have condemned the social networking site Facebook after youngsters were targeted on “secret” pages containing false rumors about students. One Millthorpe School student and four Manor CE Academy students have been expelled for setting up the pages and 20 kids at Manor have been given detention for their involvement. All have been asked to apologize. An investigation is under way at Joseph Rowntree School into similar allegations.

Head teachers at these York schools have experienced difficulty dealing with Facebook about the issue. Trevor Burton, head teacher at Millthorpe, said Facebook refused to take down the two pages mentioning Millthorpe. One was apparently removed independently and the other had its comments taken down when the school discovered who was behind the page. He said a teacher had to use their own account to report the matter and called Facebook’s response “appalling”.